


Greensleeves

by MoonRaven1412



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Art, Canon-Typical Violence, Elias the Cake-Stealer, I pick character tags bu I got no idea how far I'll write this, Nice to use that tag as well, Pre-Season/Series 01, Self-Insert, Strange things are happening, Surprise Relatives, The Mechanisms Were Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist's College | University Band, it's more like a goal though, okay chapter count changed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:55:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24772726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonRaven1412/pseuds/MoonRaven1412
Summary: Olivia Bennet applies for position in Magnus Institute. Olivia Bennet never appears to interview. Olivia Bennet is found tangling from spiderwebs, alive, inside the institute.Fact: Olivia Bennet's cousin is none other than Elias Bouchard whom Jonah Magnus decided to wear for prom (read: apocalypse)Fact: Olivia Bennet is also someone who used to listen to this certain podcast for the past three years... oh, it's only 2014 now? Well...
Comments: 36
Kudos: 52





	1. Turquoise

**Author's Note:**

> This is basically a random idea that just begged to be written out. I've not listened TMA past s1 though I really should. But reading fanfiction nicely substitutes that, doesn't it?  
> Anyhow, I got no idea how much I'll write this but I intend to post at least one other chapter from... Olivia's PoV.
> 
> Please enjoy.

**_Thursday  
5th June, 2014_ **

“Where is my necklace?”

Objectively speaking, that was not a question expected of someone who had just woken up in hospital after being attacked. Then again, these were not normal circumstances.

Personally speaking, Elias was present only because of the unusual nature of the situation. Both entity-wise and…

“It’s alright Olivia, I’m sure it is among your other things. You’ll get it back soon.” The girl’s mother was talking to the victim of current circumstances.

“Who…?”

“That’s Elias. Surely you remember your cousin Eli?”

Elias bit back the grimace that the nickname evoked and instead offered a smile at the girl. Olivia Bennet. Cousin about twenty-years junior to his current host body, the large age gap stemming from the age difference of their respective mothers.

“I… no…” Olivia muttered, averting her eyes.

“Oh well, it’s been years.” The woman placated her daughter.

Indeed. The last he’d seen of the two… and first _he_ ’d seen them, had been in “Elias’s” mother’s funerals soon after the “promotion” had happened. Elias had made sure to distance himself from the rest of the _relatives_ in the aftermath of _his mother’s_ heart attack. Hindrances were not needed. But now…

“Where is my necklace?” There was the question again.

“Never mind it, Olivia. A nurse is on her way to check you. How are you feeling?”

“Like… Like someone put my head in a blender.” The girl was pressing her hands against her temples. “I… I was…”

“What do you remember?”

“Scouting… I got interview tomorrow… Wanted to make sure I’d… find the place.”

Yes, the other reason why Elias was here. Olivia Bennet had applied for a position in Magnus Institute’s library. She never arrived and it wasn’t until the closing time when Rosie’s scream alerted all of Institute’s staff that something was amiss. When Elias arrived to the scene, it was to find the missing interviewee hanging from the ceiling of the entrance hall upside down, suspended only by myriad of spiderwebs. Those webs had covered Olivia’s lower body completely while her arms had hung down freely but stray strings hanging onto her clothing and around her fingers. Her eyes had been half-lidded but when emergency services had been called and the girl gotten down from the ceiling and to the hospital, it had been made clear that she’d been drugged with some paralytic spider venom.

What had puzzled Elias most though, was the fact that he had not seen Olivia at all if she truly had arrived to the front of the Institute on the previous night. It had been closer to twenty-four hours according to the girl’s mother that she’d been missing. But Elias had not Seen her to be within his Institute.

“Where is my necklace? I had that… I was listening to a podcast… I had my books too…” Olivia questioned her mother.

Necklace… Didn’t Rosie say she’d noticed the girl when a necklace dropped right before her and made her look up?

“Which necklace are you talking about?” The girl’s mother was asking.

“Tara gave it to me… To protect from jealous people…”

“Oh yes, nice souvenir from her trip to Turkey.”

“No… Her grandmother made it. They are Moroccan.”

“I’m fairly sure you’re misremembering. That necklace has sat in your jewelry box for years since her accident.”

“No. I’ve worn it every day since then.”

The conversation went from there on. The woman saying something and the girl refuting it, all the while pressing her clenched fists against her head. Was this all from her being drugged? Because Elias could not detect influence of the Spiral on her. Why had Web been interested in Olivia Bennet in the first place? He had an accord with The Mother of Puppets so Olivia’s familial connection – tenuous as it was now – to him should not have been a factor. Moreover…

When Elias tried to take a look at the girl’s thoughts, he was met with confusing mess of conflicting information swirling around and colliding together. He could hardly make sense of it and thus gracefully stepped back.

“I can’t understand what makes that necklace so important. You were attacked! You could’ve been seriously hurt!” The woman was now berating the girl.

“No… I… The necklace keeps me safe.” Olivia muttered finally lowering her hands and looking up at her mother. She opened her right palm and there it was. Silver necklace in the shape of a hand and decorated by turquoise stones. In the middle of the pendant was a larger round flat stone with a hole in the middle. In the hole was a perfectly round black pearl.

A khamsa. Amulet of protection associated with the three Middle East originating religions. Said to protect from the “Evil Eye”, meaning jealousy and other evil intentions. Turquoise stones were also associated with protection, as well as with spiritual world and psychic sensitivity. The black pearl was a strange addition. They were part of Far East lore after all. But they also offered protection and symbolized wisdom.

If one were to believe in such things, it was a powerful amulet. But Elias was more interested in how Olivia had it, because the necklace definitely should’ve been among her other belongings found with her.

The turquoise eye stared at Elias while the girl stared at her mother who was now fussing and asking if someone else had been in the room and given her the pendant. Olivia just placidly remained silent and then slowly made to put on the necklace on. Which made the woman fuss even more, protest a bit and suggest to wait for doctor to check on her but finally helping the girl. As soon as the hand was resting against Olivia’s collarbones, the girl seemed to relax. And Elias found himself meeting a wall around the girl’s mind. A wall made out of silver and turquoise with some pearls dotted at random intervals.

How curious.

“What day is it?” Olivia asked then. Her voice stronger and steadier. Her gaze was brighter as well.

“It’s Thursday, dear.” Her mother replied, relief evident in her voice. Probably due the fact that Olivia was making sense finally.

“Oh… I missed my interview then.” The girl muttered, her hand coming up to rub her right temple again. If Elias were to Look, there’d be a small mark from the Spiral there, previously obscured by Olivia’s amulet. But he didn’t Look, being more interested in how the girl perceived her the attack.

“If I may…” Elias began. “Depending on how fast you’ll be discharged from the hospital, we can reschedule your interview to next week.”

“This is the moment where I’m supposed to be making a quip about nepotism but that’s actually what any decent work place should do.” Olivia deadpanned. Elias allowed himself to chuckle at the joke.

“I’m glad to see you up, Olivia…” Elias paused for a moment before ‘correcting’ himself. “Livie… But I’m afraid I must be going. See you hopefully next week.”

“Thank you very much for coming Elias. It was good to see you. Don’t be a stranger in the future.” The woman prattled on, obviously pleased that he’d deigned to use the old nickname the original Elias had given the girl.

“Of course not.”

“Bye, Eli.” Olivia waved half-heartedly. “Be seeing you.”

Oh, _definitely_.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT: Added an image about approximation of the necklace that Olivia has. Less solid and silver but something like this.
> 
> About timeline: I picked a moment when Gertrude is nicely out of country with Gerard because... reasons. Just throwing that out there.
> 
> About Olivia's necklace:  
> \- Khamsa/hamsa is indeed a protective amulet from Middle East region. It's more commonly associated in Islam as Hand of Fatima but it's known names include Hand of Miriam(Judaism) and Hand of Mary(Christianity). It is shaped like a hand with an eye in the palm. Usually used in jewelry and wall decoration. Said to protect from the evil eye ie jealousy but I found it appropriate to use here as well.  
> -"Turquoise is a valuable mineral that is often use for jewelry, especially in the American Southwest and Middle East. Turquoise is one of the oldest protection amulets and in many ancient cultures was a symbol of wealth and prosperity. Turquoise was associated with connections to the spiritual world, psychic sensitivity, and protection from harm and negative energy." Again, very appropriate and I've seen images of khamsa decorated with turquoise stones or enamel.  
> \- Black Pearls geography-wise don't fit to the amulet but I wanted something else than black stone to act as the amulet's pupil. I searched black pearls then and I found this Chinese legend that seemed appropriate to it: "A natural black pearl is a symbol of infinite wisdom. According to this Chinese legend, pearls were formed in the heads of dragons, which they perceived as wise, and the dragons carried the pearls between their teeth until their death."
> 
> So... Got plans for the next chapter where Olivia figures out what is going on(but not everything) and has an internal freakout.


	2. Olive Green

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Olivia gets her spotlight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here is the latter chapter. Like I mentioned in the previous one I got no idea how much I'll write this. I got some ideas but I haven't written them down. Probably should.

**_Thursday  
5th June, 2014_ **

When the door closed behind Elias – _Elias fricken’ Bouchard, what the fuck was this life_ – Olivia let out the breath she hadn’t even noticed to be holding in.

“Olivia, are you alright?” Her mother touching her suddenly made her startle.

“I… yes… I just… I just realized that Eli was quite… different.” Olivia managed to stammer out.

“He finally grew up. The responsibility that came with the promotion must’ve done some good to him.”

 _“I disagree with you so strongly; you can’t even imagine.”_ Olivia fought to keep her face neutral and just replied, “It must’ve made him mighty stuffy as well. Did you listen to him speak? Did you notice the wedding ring? It’s been twenty years since we’ve seen him and he’s now some pretentious smug-arse!”

“Wedding ring?” The woman perked up. “And he didn’t even deign to invite us?”

“’pparently not…” Olivia rolled her eyes (wincing at the slight pain the motion caused) but was internally grateful for not needing to endure the possible presence of potential Lukases. Though if she was re-establishing contact with Elias through her (possible) new job… well, divorce and wedding were bound to happen again. It made her wonder how many times Elias had divorced Peter (or Peter divorced him) and married again and how offended her mother would be at the number of missed weddings.

Her mother – Birgit Bennet – got up from her chair and dusted some non-existent dust from it. “I’ll go get the nurse. Strange that one hasn’t come yet. You just rest in the meanwhile. I’ll be right back.”

“Sure… Thanks mum…” Olivia smiled. She was getting tired. Partly for the stress of having Elias fricken’ Bouchard in the same room, partly for having Birgit fuss around… and partly because of what the hell was going on.

“Of course, dear.” Birgit laid a gentle kiss on Olivia’s hair and then left the room herself.

Left Olivia to her own thoughts.

The girl flopped back against her pillows and ran a hand across her face. Her head still felt like having gone through blender but at least now the ingredients were settling down.

Things were… strange. Olivia could sort of see things tying together while diverging elsewhere. She was still Olivia Bennet. Her mother was still Birgit Bennet. Her father was Johan Smed (basically John Smith but in Swedish) but for reasons unfathomable, Olivia went by her mother last name.

Johan Smed… Jon Sims… Jonathan Fanshawe… Jonah Magnus… Way too many Jo’s for these circles.

Anyhow… Olivia was still 26 years old… but the year was 2014 instead of 2020. She remembered a cousin of sorts that fell out of contact years ago… who apparently in this life was Elias Bouchard. She had no idea what had happened to her to appear in this… world? They appeared to blend together almost seamlessly. Olivia had had a job interview coming and she was checking the route so she wouldn’t be late… but that’s it. She remembered going to the subway but blanking out until vague impressions of staring down at people registered for her.

A scream and sometime later people taking her down. Olivia must’ve passed out after that. Until waking up in the hospital room, her head pounding and knowing that something was very wrong and she needed her necklace where wasitsheneededithewaswatching. He. Must. Not. _See_.

Olivia took forcibly a sharp breath, cutting the train of thought that threatened to spiral her back to the state of panic and confusion. Instead she lifted her hand to touch the necklace. Gift from Tara, her very dear friend who’d been in car accident three years ago. When she’d been recovering from losing her legs, Olivia had coped with the fact of almost completely losing her friend… by wearing the necklace every day and starting to listen The Magnus Archives podcast, thus drowning herself into horror of others as distraction.

But here… Tears prickled in Olivia’s eyes when she realized that Tara had actually died in that accident. That apparently Olivia had buried her necklace to her jewelry box in her grief and pretended the whole box didn’t exist. No wonder she’d been confused. But how dare this thing that brought her here take her friend from her. _Her best friend_. _Tara was dead while to Olivia she’d been alive just yesterday._

What the hell was going on?

* * *

The nurse came in and asked questions. Birgit fussed over Olivia a bit more before finally leaving home, promising to come again tomorrow. Nurse mentioned that the police would come and question her tomorrow as well. Olivia wagered that the officers would be sectioned ones. Hey, maybe she’d get the chance to meet Basira. Not Daisy though. Olivia did not know what sort of fuckery she’d gone through the hands of entities (Web likely? Spiral maybe? Eye possibly? Something else? Did the Vast deal with dimensions?) and she really did not fancy having Daisy on her scent before she had regained her bearings and figured out how to navigate… this version of her life.

Getting a job at Magnus Institute was given thanks to Jonah I-want-to-know-and-control-everything Magnus who was wearing her cousin now.

Olivia sighed.

She was so screwed.

* * *

**_Friday  
6th June, 2014_ **

The police officers were not Basira and Daisy. They were two very generic looking officers, Amanda Jones and Eileen Miller. Both had light brown hair, Amanda a shade paler and on a braid while Eileen had a shade or two towards ombre and on a bun. Amanda had glasses, both had pale-ish skin appropriate for a Londoner and eyes were some pale color as well.

Placeholders, Olivia thought of them as she answered their questions. Meant to be forgettable and not distract victims from their bizarre statements. Frankly, she was quite thankful that it was them and not known canon characters interviewing her. Otherwise Olivia would’ve thought too hard what she could say and do, and she really didn’t feel like consider any possible butterfly-effects her presence would have intentionally and not.

With the last tests taken from her as well, Olivia was informed that she’d be discharged tomorrow morning. Good.

That night, Olivia dreamt.

* * *

**_Tuesday  
15th October, 1996_ **

It was raining. Of course, it was. It was autumn, it was England, it was funerals. So naturally there was rain.

Olivia sat on the church bench, her feet dangling down. She was sad and bored. Aunt Emily was dead and they were just sitting quiet and listening the priest talk. She wanted her Walkman. Dad had found a bunch of old tapes from the attic and they were full of spooky stories.

“Olivia, stop fidgeting.” Mum told her. Mum was all teared up and had reminded Olivia of being respectful in church. Because of God and because of aunt Emily.

God was boring.

Olivia stopped swinging her legs but continued looking around. There weren’t many people present. Olivia and her mother were only family aside from cousin Eli since Eli’s father and their maternal grandparents were already dead. Neither had siblings… Actually, there were no other Bennets. And Olivia’s dad was unable to come. So there were mostly just aunt Emily’s old friends.

And no other kids. That was the reason mother had allowed Olivia to bring her Walkman at all. But she was to listen to it only at memorial.

Cousin Eli was sitting on the same row but on mum’s other side. Olivia tried to peek at him past mum but mum pushed her back against the back of the seat. Cousin Eli looked like a statue. He wasn’t crying, just looking at the priest speaking by the coffin laid with flowers. He had his hair weird too, lifted up and back and combed down. Olivia had never seen cousin Eli with his hair like that.

Suddenly cousin Eli looked at her. Olivia blinked. The eyes were… wrong, somehow. Quite green. Olivia had green eyes. Dad had green eyes. Mum and aunt Emily had blue eyes while uncle Jasper and Eli had brown-green eyes. Mum said the color was called hazel but in Olivia’s opinion they looked nothing like hazelnuts.

Eli quirked a short smile before looking back at the front. Even the smile looked weird. Like Eli didn’t know how to smile… or maybe he just didn’t know if it was okay to smile when his mum was dead.

* * *

**_Saturday  
7th June, 2014_ **

Olivia opened her eyes blearily and stared at the ceiling.

“In hindsight… It’s way too obvious.” She sighed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a point why I ramble about random stuff. But I won't mention what that random stuff is in fear of spoilers to this. Throw guesses!
> 
> I don't want any negative comments about my choice of name for Olivia's father. I named him after my grandfather who's name was Johannes Seppä (John Smith but Finnish).


	3. Patina

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adjusting to new-old life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I name this chapter Patina but there is no actual patina color mentioned or even referenced... because silver doesn't get patinated, bronze does.

**_Saturday  
7th June, 2014_ **

Olivia was discharged from the hospital and her mother gave a ride home. Birgit then continued going through Olivia’s kitchen. Throwing away spoiled food, putting the dishwasher on and wiping all the countertops. Stress cleaning. Olivia was of the opinion that Birgit didn’t need to do it but was still thankful for it due the fact that Olivia herself was way too tired mentally to expend any actual effort to it. She was already – slowly – reacquainting herself with her apartment and life in general.

Familiar, familiar, familiar, oh wait what…

Every once in a while, she’d spot something that did not belong to her previous life or something that was missing from this new one. It was jarring experience. So much familiar things, things that Olivia instinctively recognized as _hers_ but scattered around were things that _could be but hadn’t been_. And those things were causing mental whiplashes to Olivia. It was exhausting.

For now, she was concentrating on her music selection. There were bunch of tapes, bunch of CDs, some old vinyls as well. All sorts of things collected and inherited along the years. She instinctively knew which of those she’d received from Tara’s collection (majority of CDs), which from aunt Emily’s stores (all the vinyls)… Which her dad had given her (the tapes in the rack on the left) which she’d bought or recorded herself (the rest).

Four CDs attracted her attention. She had not expected to find them. Olivia picked the first one and traced the image of rocket on the cover. Once Upon a Time (in Space). The first studio album of The Mechanisms. Unexpected to have them exist here as well, but Olivia was glad for it.

With a sigh Olivia put the CD back into the rack and turned to regard the clothes strewn around the room from when she’d been picking options to wear for the interview and left them to hang to straighten out and make a decision when she came back from checking out them place.

Some of the dresses she put straight back to the closet. Too summery. If she were to put on some blazer to make them look more professional, then she’d boil alive in the summer heat. Or alternatively freeze after being drenched in rain. There really was no middle ground in English weather.

Olivia was in process of considering between two sets of knee-length straight pants when Birgit came to the room.

“Olivia, I’m going to the store to get you something to eat. Then I’ll be going home. Are you sure you’ll be fine? It must’ve been terrifying to be attacked like that. Are you sure you want to be alone again?”

“I’m fine, mum.” Olivia sighed wearily. “I don’t… I don’t even remember much. Just a vague sense of… suspension. And when I was found. But otherwise nothing after getting to subway. So, it’s… fine.”

“Alright. Don’t hesitate to call if you need to talk. Anytime is fine. And remember call your father. Johan has been worried. I told him what happened but you call him and tell you’re home and safe now.”

“Of course.”

“You’re a darling.” Birgit tugged Olivia bit lower and laid a kiss on the younger woman’s forehead. Olivia had inherited her height from her father and thus for the past ten years or so, since she shot past Birgit, their little ritual had required of her to bend down for the blessing gesture to succeed.

“And you’re golden.” Olivia smiled and embraced the woman.

* * *

Birgit came back and then left without Olivia needing to contribute. She sat down in sofa and opened the television to provide some background noise. This place was familiar. More familiar than anything else she’d seen thus far. But the sense of _wrongness_ persisted still. It only required her to look at the family picture on the bookshelf to see that. Birgit was as she had been but Johan…

Olivia’s father had been a history professor with archeology as a side subject. Plain professor but one that engaged students and encouraged them to learn his occasionally dead boring topics. Here… still history, still archeology but this time with modern Indiana Jones twist. Kept gallivanting around the world, sending gifts and occasionally visiting. Always a phone call away and never missing important milestones in Olivia’s life but… still different. And that was probably the change which bothered Olivia the most.

But she should call him anyways. Maybe tomorrow though.

* * *

**_Sunday  
8th June, 2014_ **

Olivia did call her father. The man was currently in Egypt, roaming the pyramids and caves like some rich adventurer from 20’s. But he had time to answer her call.

_“So your interview is next week?”_

“Yes, I’ll be contacting them tomorrow about the rescheduling.”

_“Do you still want to work there considering what happened to you?”_

“I’m even more curious now.” A lie but not too far off. “You can only blame yourself for inflicting me with this curiosity towards things hidden and unknown.”

_“That’s an inherited trait. I got it from my mother who got it from her father.”_

“So I’ve heard.” Olivia smiled wryly, her other hand fidgeting with her necklace. Though she’d worn in in her previous life, here it meant foreign and new against her skin, thus practically demanded to the fiddled with.

 _“I’m glad to hear you are alright. Safe and sound.”_ Johan sighed. _“I worry, you know.”_

“Each point is debatable but for now I think I’ll be fine.”

_“I’m glad to hear that. I know your mother has probably told you this as well but if there is anything you want to talk about – anything at all – don’t hesitate to call. I’ll always make time for my little princess.”_

“I know. Thank you, dad.”

* * *

**_Monday  
9th June, 2014_ **

The call from the institute came 9 o’clock in the morning. The new interview was arranged on next Wednesday. Olivia picked plain black knee length pants, white collar shirt and grey vest for the afternoon. As the forecast said it would be chilly but not cold that day, Olivia completed the outfit with black, low-heeled boots that reached mid-calf and simple green ribbon to be tied around her throat. Preplanning was everything in this situation.

Elias hadn’t called her. Olivia wasn’t sure if it was as expected or if she should be disappointed for the lack of contact and concern. It was… difficult. Elias was Jonah Magnus currently but Elias was still Elias. Whenever Olivia thought that face, she first thought of Elias, her cousin Eli… But behind those wrong colored eyes lied the ultimate villain of this story, the one aiming (and succeeding) to bring about the apocalypse.

Olivia had fiddled with the timeline she knew and remembered. She’d written it all down. What she could do, what she should do, what she actually wanted to do and what she needed to do in order for any of those scenarios to be altered. It would be less than a year that first relevant events would the kickstarted.

Did it make her a bad person if she didn’t care that Gertrude would die? Probably but that drastic deviation of timeline that early would be detrimental for predicting things.

Should she feel guilty for the fact that Elias/Jonah would in that case pin Jon Sims as the new to be Archivist and then subsequently manipulate the younger man into starting an apocalypse? Yeah… but Olivia hopefully would then be in a position to alleviate paranoia, terror and whatelse in the Archival staff. Hopefully.

Did she have any concrete goals? Yes.

  1. Saving Gerard Keay from lung cancer might be impossible and because his date of death was vague, Olivia would not be able to stop Gertrude from turning him into part of the skinbook… But! But Olivia could try and get her hands on the book itself so Gerard would not be used by Trevor and Julia.
  2. Saving Sasha James. Either by steering her away from the Artefact storage or then preparing to kill NotThem when it prepared to strike and kill Sasha. Maybe if there was no free archival assistant spot in the aftermath, Elias wouldn’t hire Melanie… But then Melanie wouldn’t be present for the Flesh attack?
  3. Figure out how to save Eli. Maybe in the process also deter Jon from collecting the fear marks (especially Desolation, Vast and Flesh marks, those were just result of thoughtless actions) … at least by doing so delay the event of Apocalypse.



Everything else Olivia could decide and consider once things started rolling.

* * *

**_Wednesday  
11th June, 2014_ **

The interview came and went. The spot might’ve as well been given to Olivia straight away since at the end of the interview, Diana the Head Librarian told her she was hired and then subsequently gave her a tour in her future work environment.

“Your CV and thesis more than convinced me but I wanted to see you as a person first.” Diana explained as they walked between the shelves.

“I see. I’m glad then that you found my temperament… suitable for library work.” Olivia nodded, letting her eyes wander across the backs of the books, most of them leather bound or fabric covered. There were some paperbacks as well but very few of them.

“And I can’t wait to see you tomorrow for your in-depth instruction on how everything works here.” Diana added, clapping her hands together and twirling around, her ankle-length skirt swishing with the movement. Olivia eyed the skirt. It looked quite nice, not too heavy but not too cheap either. Maybe she could try to find something similar. Not navy blue like Diana’s though. But something sophisticated and old-fashioned to fit this place.

With a boss like theirs, life was pretty much an eternal masquerade.

* * *

When Olivia got home, there was a letter waiting for her. Other mail had arrived in her absence as well, but the letter was what drew her attention.

Her address was written on her father’s handwriting, sent from Cairo and quite heavy. When Olivia felt the contents through the envelope, she would feel some slim smallish item inside. But of firm material, wood of metal perhaps.

As Olivia owned no letter openers, she was forced to search for scissors.

A letter and a metal bookmark slid out. The bookmark was naturally what drew Olivia’s attention first. It was made of silver and had an owl at its head with a faded red tassel hanging from it. The bottom of the bookmark was shaped – ironically enough – like a letter opener.

Olivia unfolded the letter. It was dated on the day of her attack while the postal stamp was three days after that. Her father had probably written it beforehand, forgotten to post it with the news of Olivia being hospitalized and all and remembered to do so only after Birgit had called him and told Olivia had awoken.

* * *

_"2 nd June, 2014_   
_To my little princess,_

_Congratulations on your new job! While it may seem premature for me to write this while you’ve  
not even gone to the interview, I have no doubts of you achieving what you want. I know how hard  
you have studied and worked this far and the Magnus Institute would be fools not to see that. And  
the fact you got the interview in the first place means that your Curriculum Vitae has impressed them._

_With this letter I sent you my old bookmark/letter opener. I got it from my mother who got it from  
her father and so on. According to my grandfather, his great-grandparent stole this bookmark  
along with some books many years ago. I still have those books in my study and I will show them to  
you when I next come back to England._

_Call me when your first day at work is over, I’m sure it will be interesting! Academics regarding  
supernatural are not something I thought you’d pursue but then again you used to spend a lot of  
time with fantasy books. Escaping to imaginary worlds was something you liked to do a lot.  
And times of history sometimes feel like whole other worlds so there has been common ground  
between our interests as well. Supernatural impressions and folklore stories are after all rooted in  
history and culture of different areas and their belief systems._

_I’m so very glad for you and proud of you, my daughter._

_Johan Smed"_

* * *

Olivia flipped the bookmark over. There was an engraving there. Yet another mystery.

_F.Johnson 1831_

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This bookmark is actually in our family but it's from year 1932. Very nice and appropriate, isn't it?  
> I suffer like Olivia. I got not letter openers. Using a finger is annoying because sometimes I want to save the envelope. And yes, I do get letters still.
> 
> By the way, Johan's name is pronounced as [YUU-han Sme:d] So long o/u and long e which is not i. Weight is on the first syllable in this case.
> 
> Next chapter will be from... Elias PoV! Olivia's first day in work and all.
> 
> I'll try to get drawing my impression on the characters. I tried avatar creators but they just did not have the right color for hair. (I'm picky)


	4. Pine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Olivia arrives and adopts annoying cousin routine. Elias is not amused. But wild Tim appears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... Elias's pov again. I hope I did well. More of my ramblings in the bottom note.

**_Thursday  
12th June, 2014_ **

Elias Watched as Olivia made her way towards the Institute from Sloane Square underground station, picking bus number 19 and getting off at Beaufort Street Kings Road then walking from there along the Chelsea embankment.

She was dressed pretty much in the same style than yesterday for her interview but the colors differed. Dark grey pinstriped dress-pants and dark green vest. A tasseled pin tucked in her breast pocket. Elias frowned at her shoes though. Knee-high heeled buckled boots. Not… suitable. He’d better point out the dress code to her. And maybe get her wear some long pants as well.

She walked up the Institute stairs, stopped briefly in the middle to gaze up at the building and then – after a steeling breath – resolutely continued approaching. She greeted Rosie at the front desk and was then escorted to Elias’s office at which point Elias ceased Watching in order to properly greet her.

Knock on the door.

“Mr. Bouchard, Miss Bennet is here for signing her contract.” Rosie said from behind the door.

“Come in.” Elias replied and the door opened, Rosie then stepping aside to let Olivia enter. He stood up from his seat and formally, politely, like Olivia was any other future employee, offered his hand. “Miss Bennet.”

“Mister Bouchard.” Olivia shook the hand with polite smile on her face. A smidge nervous but determined. From the collar of her vest, Elias could see her wearing the khamza still and thus not allowing him to access her thoughts. Behind her, Rosie closed the door. She’d come back with mail and missives after this business was conducted.

“Please take a seat.” Elias gestured to the chair placed opposite his desk. Olivia sat down and placed her bag by her feet. The contract was already on his desk, turned to face her, with a fountain pen beside it. “Welcome to the Magnus Institute. You’ve been interviewed and deemed suitable for position, and likewise you’ve accepted the offered position as library assistant. The only thing left is the formalities and then I can release you to Mrs. Halliwell’s gentle care for your instructions and start of the day.”

From there Elias continued to give a brief overview of the Institute’s history, mission, different departments and their jobs as well as what was expected of Olivia as an employee and thus representant of the Institute. Things that originally should’ve been told her in her interview but… well, first one was cancelled for obvious reasons and second one was truncated a bit, with Mrs Diana Halliwell deciding to give Olivia a tour to set her at ease after her ‘harrowing experience’.

“Any questions?”

“Yes. How are you planning on making up to my mum the fact that you invited none of our family to your wedding?”

What.

“I… Excuse me?” Elias gripped onto his wavering composure.

“The wedding ring.” Olivia nodded at his interlinked fingers. “Usually it’s customary to invite your family. Mum was quite upset and you _don’t_ want to upset Birgit Bennet.” She snatched the contract from the desk and was now reading through it. The action seemed idle, considering how she could keep up the conversation at the same time but the slow motion of her eyes and the slight furrow between her brows betrayed the intense scrutiny.

“I suppose I need to take it up with her.” Elias smiled tightly. This was why he’d tried to push _his_ … maternal relatives away.

“Hm… Just be glad dad wasn’t present at the hospital. He is very good at giving lectures.” Olivia reached for the duplicate of the contract and scanned it through as well.

“Your father is still in the picture?” Elias frowned. While he’d pushed his vessels memories quite deep aside and only utilized the barebones of them at the beginning in or to make the transition smooth, he couldn’t recall seeing Olivia’s father… even in Emily Bouchard’s funerals. What was the man’s name again?

The momentary confusion must’ve shown on his face despite his best attempts to remain neutral. Olivia was visibly amused when she looked at him over the papers.

“Dad is an archeologist and university lecturer. Though he mostly does guest lectures as his job otherwise pulls him abroad.” She explained. “But he is very good at talking. I guess it’s all in the intonation and cadence that invites people to listen and remain with him until he is done.”

“Sounds like you’ve been at the receiving end of those lectures.” Elias chuckled – hiding his annoyance over not finding out the man’s name – as Olivia laid the contracts back on the table and grasped the pen. She weighted it in her hand for a moment, obviously unused to fountain pens.

“Oh, I was a bit unruly kid in middle school. You wouldn’t happen to have scrap paper for me to test this on? Or regular ballpoint pen to use?”

Why couldn’t people appreciate the elegance of ink pens?

Elias opened a desk drawer and browsed for some paper he wouldn’t need afterwards. Well, that’d work nicely. He slid it over the desk to Olivia who began testing her quite loopy signature on it.

“It’s the weight of the pen rather than the tip that bothers me. My upper secondary school had re-enactment club that had a lot of old utensils of various crafts. Not to mention that we did visits to various museums that had sort of test-yourself zones.” Olivia was explaining whilst adding last parts of her signature, Curiously, it was the curves of the letter B which then extended to looped line beneath the signature. Apparently satisfied with the result, she then took the contracts and signed them with the same fluent flourish.

“Thank you.” Elias took one of the papers and then the pen Olivia had left on the desk. He’d file it soon. With the paper sheet that had draft for his and Peter’s latest divorce arrangement on the other side and now had ‘Olivia Bennet’ scrawled all over. “You’ll get to keep the other paper and I suppose Mrs. Halliwell is already waiting for you.”

“I’m sure.” Olivia took her copy and bent down to get her bag from the floor.

“And… here at the Institute we have a dress code. I have to ask you to in the future use some sensible shoes and pants that go past knee.”

Olivia blinked at him and tilted her head. Then one corner of her mouth quirked up.

“Like you floral print shirts and ripped jeans did?”

“Excuse me?”

“From 1991 to ’96… That was your regular workwear. I have photo evidence. The Institute staff may have changed or forgotten in the past twenty years or so but… Who knows?”

Was she… seriously blackmailing him? Was this a revenge? Revenge on… what? Lack of communication?

Elias remained silent as Olivia slipped her contract to her bag and got on her feet. He considered her outfit. While not completely desirable it retained some modicum of professionality. Unlike some other current employees of his did. He sighed. He had a reputation to maintain and aside from Gertrude, there actually weren’t that many employees left at the Institute that remembered his vessel’s first years and atrocious fashion sense that he’d flaunted around. Moreover, _Elias_ had been moved quite quickly to the Archives by the previous head and vessel, James Wright. Move that had its benefits and problems.

“Very well. I’ll concede. But you better take care to look professional and respectable every day you work here.”

“Of course.” Olivia nodded. “If that will be all, Mister Bouchard?”

“That’ll be all, Miss Bennet.”

There was again that suppressed smile with additional mirth in Olivia’s eyes. What was it this time? It was frustrating that he simply could not See…

“Good day then.” Olivia dismissed herself.

What a frustrating girl.

* * *

During the day Elias took occasional glimpses at Olivia. She worked diligently, chatted with her new coworkers, got to know other Institute staff at lunchbreak… All in all seemed quite normal. People questioned her about her circumstances and those few that connected her to the girl clinging from the spiderwebs… well, they were deterred quickly with her declaring not remembering much of the incident. Thankfully no one seemed to know of the familial connection between her and Elias, and Olivia didn’t seem to be inclined to share it either no matter how much she enjoyed needling him behind closed doors.

When the end of the day came, Elias timed his departure at the same time with Olivia’s so they met right by the front doors.

“Miss Bennet, I trust you’ve had an enjoyable first day.”

“Oh yes, Mrs Diana was very clear in her initial instructions and afterwards other workers were available for any questions that I came up.”

“That sounds very good.”

“Thank you.” Olivia nodded. Her eyes wandered to the left and the same damnable smile appeared again before smoothing over. Elias could feel trepidation raising when she opened her mouth again. “Until tomorrow, Eli.”

There was spluttering on the left. Elias whipped his head to the direction of the sound and…

Timothy Stoker from research was over there, shirt soaked in soda from his paper mug. For all appearances he’d… what was that ridiculous term again? Ah, ‘had a spit take’. How disgraceful.

“E-Eli?!” Stoker asked after gaining his breath. Olivia just shrugged and began descending the stairs.

“Goodbye, Tim.” She gave an over the shoulder wave.

Elias gave into the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. Out of all people in front of which she could’ve let out the… nickname slip. No, this was intentional. She’d timed it.

“Boss? What was that?” Stoker was asking.

“It’s none of your business, Mr. Stoker.” Elias said stiffly and turned to leave.

Of course that was the worst possible reply. Because it was Timothy Stoker that heard the nickname, it meant that by lunchtime next day, everyone at the Institute knew about it and were speculating where it came from and thus what was the connection between Elias and Olivia.

That damnable, unpredictable girl.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... when I started writing this chapter... Olivia's surname is Bennet. Like, Barnabas Bennett. And I hadn't noticed before? Just... why... There is no relation though.
> 
> But yeah, I hope you had fun with Olivia being unpredictable. It was partially because now she can afford being like this and poking at Elias when the stakes haven't risen to be sky-high and partly it's because she wants to leave his presence as soon as possible.
> 
> I tried to make Olivia's signature but failed. My own handwriting is spikier and signature squished together.
> 
> Anyhow, I gotta leave for work now. I'll answer to comments afterwards. Byeee! o/


	5. Holly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Contemplation and regret, additional information, and Olivia remembers she has friends.  
> Oh, and wild Jon appears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I suppose the previous chapter was a bit weird... I apologise(?). But Elias's pov is sort of... enforced outsider because he can't cheat by mindreading. Thus here is Olivia's response to the meeting at the office.

**_Thursday  
12th June, 2014_ **

Olivia collapsed on her sofa and threw an arm over her eyes. The first day was over, she had literally signed her life to the Institute and done some… dubious things to distract both herself and Elias.

She’d been so rude… hiding behind the veneer of familiarity and wielded it like a shield and blunt instrument at the same time. Hoping that thus Elias would not look into her mind too deeply. Hoping that her irreverence could poke at _Eli_ hidden somewhere deep down in that body still. If he was still even alive…

Dresscode and blackmail… It was so and so situation. Partially it was indignation at the slight against her clothes which were just fine! Maybe a bit steampunk-ish but her shirt and vest had been tidy and her shoes were semi-sensible. Besides today was mainly a test of how much she’d be on her feet and if she could use heels for an entire day. And what was wrong with her pants? They were straight, solid dark color and got no embellishments. It wasn’t like she’d been wearing a mini-skirt! Thus, she’d retaliated. There was a lot of photos of Eli in his original clothes during his tenure in Institute. Some even taken right before the Institute even. There was one where Eli had Olivia on his shoulders. So yeah… She had material to go through with her threat but she wasn’t sure how effective its effects would be in the end so… she wouldn’t push too much. Maybe put on some capris tomorrow?

‘Slipping’ with the nickname had been intentional. Timothy Stoker being there was calculated but mainly hopeful move. Technically anyone could’ve worked to fuel the rumor mill. After all, they were all servants of the Eye, more or less.

Anyhow, tomorrow she’d probably inform at least the library crew of her familial connection with Eli. They knew she’d been hired by Diana after all and wouldn’t accuse her of getting her position via nepotism. And who knew what other rumors other institute workers would come up with. Better give them a morsel and then nip the worst rumors at the bud.

Olivia sighed. Distractions, distractions… To hide her own panic and get as fast as possible away from Elias’s presence. To hopefully keep Elias off kilter enough that he wouldn’t look at her thoughts.

Her fingers trailed her necklace. She had not forgotten the feeling of compulsion that had made her demand the necklace. The feeling that she _needed_ it to be safe. She probably would’ve worn it anyways because of habit and Tara’s memory but… Would it really protect her from Elias? It was a longshot but one that Olivia was willing to take even thought she had no way of knowing whether or not it worked. Thus a pervading sense of paranoia and then urge to do and say stupid things. She dearly hoped she’d get a confirmation on the matter. Sooner rather than later.

“Ugh, up I get.” Olivia swung her legs to the side and got up from the sofa. She needed to eat. And make a to-do list on some mundane tasks.

* * *

**_Friday  
13th June, 2014_ **

The next day at work went… fine. People were gossiping. Olivia was confronted during lunch and she told the truth. Well, as much of truth that was applicable to the current situation. And despite some jokes about nepotism, things calmed quite quickly.

Olivia wasn’t holding her breath though. She was the new meat. She’d be the target of curiosity and rumors for months to come.

So, the day went okay. She even managed to avoid Elias somehow. And when the day ended, she made her way towards the front entrance with mild sense of relief. She wasn’t as preoccupied than she was on previous times though and thus had time and brain energy to look around a bit more carefully. The carvings on the balusters and railings, depicting mainly plant life but hiding thousands of eyes. The paintworks on the walls, both of scenery and portraits. There are very few nooks that were not covered in some view of sight.

But one such thing there is though in the entrance hall. Directly above the main door but below the rows of windows there is a niche with singular portrait. The niche is quite deep and wide, and the portrait can’t quite fill it. But at the bottom half of the portrait there is a blind spot. No other eyes reach the niche sideways or diagonally, having directed their gazes down, at their subjects. And the portrait’s eyes looked straight forward, at the staircase where Olivia was standing now.

“That’s where you were found.”

“Hyuiiiiik!” Olivia jumped, whirling around and one hand going for the railing so she wouldn’t tumble down.

The other hand was captured by the person who’d startled her, thus steadying her.

“My apologies…” Came the awkward… well, apology. Olivia blinked and took a deep breath.

“No problem.” She offered a shaky smile and readjusted her feet on the ground, the straightening up. She shifted her right hand in his grip then, making it onto proper hand shake. “Olivia Bennet, recent library hire.”

“Jonathan Sims, research department.” The man replied. Ah, so this was poor Jon. Olivia hadn’t had the chance to meet him yet. Though this was definitely not how she’d imagined it. More like her barging into Research and striking up a conversation with Tim who’d then introduce her to everyone or something.

“Nice to meet you. Thank you for the save.”

“Well… it was my fault anyways…” Jon dropped his hand and Olivia let him.

“You were saying something about me being found?” She asked then, deciding to soldier through the awkwardness.

“Yes. I was still at the Institute when Rosie… screamed, so I witnessed your… entanglement.” He shuddered, probably at the memory of the webs. “You were directly below that painting.” Jon pointed at the portrait in the niche.

“Huh…” So she had been in the blind spot then. “Was it real spiderweb? Elias said something like that at the hospital and I know that spiderweb is one of the strongest natural fibers found in the world… but it still seems very improbable that I could’ve been hanging from them up there.”

“Yes. And there was a lot of it.” Jon replied tersely. Olivia just nodded.

“Whose portrait is that? It’s a bit far away.”

“It’s the founder of the Institute, Jonah Magnus.” Olivia felt a shiver go down her spine. “There are two other portraits of him here as well. One is in the corridor going to Archives while the other is usually in Elias’s office but has been taken to be reframed.”

“Reframed?”

“Yes, quite. It was being moved to another spot within the office when the workers dropped it and the frame cracked. Elias was not pleased.” Jon stuffed his hands to the pockets of his pants. Olivia let her eyes wander his frame and looks. With a podcast where minimal information was given about the way people looked, she’d been curious to see what Jon and rest of the (future) archival staff would look like. This Jon had dark-ish skin, maybe from middle east or south Asia. Dark eyes, dark hair slicked back… was he mimicking Elias or something? Only one silvery lock was escaping the gel-induced imprisonment and instead was tucked behind Jon’s ear. Slacks, collared shirt, tie, sweater vest, glasses… making him look a decade or two older than he actually was.

“So that’s why there was weird blank spot next to the door…”

“Indeed.” Jon started descending the stairs. Olivia followed a step behind.

“Say… Would you like to get coffee or something with me someday?” She asked then.

“I… I don’t know if that’s advisable… We barely even know each other… and besides I don’t think there’s any use pursuing-…”

“Not as a date. But as two colleagues catching up after work day. Plenty of people do that.”

Jon glanced over his shoulder, frowning.

“Why me? Why not one of your colleagues from the library.”

“Well…” Olivia pondered a moment. Why indeed? Aside from Jon being the protagonist and trouble magnet of this story. “Maybe because you are the first person with whom I've had a truly interesting conversation here. One that didn’t pertain to rumors or my adjustment at new job either.”

“I-I’ll consider it.” The man sped up his pace slightly and Olivia slowed down, waving at his back.

“Okay. Have a good weekend.” She smiled wryly. Social ineptitude… how pitiable yet endearing. She looked up at the portrait which was now almost directly above her but allowed diagonally better line of sight than from the distance that the stairs induced. Jonah Magnus. The utter bastard. Yet there was something disconcertingly familiar in him. Not the eyes since Elias had them in his head right now. But shade of his hair, shape of his chin, length of his nose… the cheekbones too. Olivia could swear she’d seen them on someone else as well.

Maybe she’d need to go take a better look on one of the other portraits. But she really didn’t want to go anywhere close to Archives and Gertrude.

Such a dilemma.

* * *

Mundane checklist, thing number one: Get in touch with your friends and map out who are still alive. Olivia had been so wrapped with her realization that Tara was dead and she was now in some Magnus Archives themed parallel world that she’d had no space in her brain to think who else she was friends with still. Whatsapp had been silenced as had Discord when Olivia had gone to check the Institute. So she’d been in radio silence for almost two weeks and she had no idea if her friends knew about her accident or recovery.

So with no small amount of trepidation, Olivia opened her messaging app. There were some messages piled up, but not much. And…

 ** _Benjy:_** You dad messaged us at chat about your accident. Please reply soon.

Benjy…? Benjamin. Benjamin Dunbar. They got to know each other in university when taking one of Olivia’s father’s lectures about Renaissance Italy. Benjy had been studying history of clothing and life and eventually graduated in costume design and tailoring. If Olivia remembered correctly, he was now working for _Ascot & Corsetry_ where they made bespoke suits and clothing from various eras. Mostly handsewn and by using original methods and stiches and as authentic fabrics as possible. Expensive but they had their own distinct clientele. Olivia had been their customer a couple of times as well, saving diligently for over a year for the piece she ordered. Their dedication for the craft was admirable and genuine.

And, Benjy among other friends of hers had been her father’s students more or less and thus Johan was still in contact with them. Of course…

So with a sigh, Olivia opened Discord.

* * *

**Time-displaced Nerds**

**Olive  
** Hello, everyone! I’m back.  
And alive.  
Sorry for worrying you.

 **Benjy**   
Liv!

 **Trisha  
** Livvie!

 **Marc  
** You’re back!

 **Denny  
** What happened?

 **Jen-Jenn  
** We were so worried!

 **Olive**  
It’s… really strange. Sorry for taking my time.  
My head was a bit… messy.

 **Trisha  
** Before you disappeared, you said you were applying to Magnus Inst.  
Is this related?

 **Olive  
** Sort of.

 **Denny  
** Spooky stuff.

 **Jen-Jenn  
** Den-Dan.  
Don’t.

 **Denny  
** Sorry.

 **Olive:  
** I don’t remember anything about the incident itself but here is what basically happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Benjy Dunbar was a character I had in my mind before I realized Olivia's surname's similarity to Barnabas'. He was created mainly because of chapter 7. What'll happen then? Well, Johan appears at the Institute and causes chaos. After this chapter, any guesses why?  
> But Benjy was also created because I absolutely love youtube videos by Bernadette Banner. She is so talented and her videos about corsets and Edwardian figure is so informative! I definitely recommend!
> 
> I'll try to pick up the pace in timeline. Got to get to the spring of next year within next five chapters.
> 
> Anyhow, I hope you liked this! See ya again at some point!
> 
> EDIT: Some typos fixed.


	6. Emerald

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Olivia's birthday! Things are... Strange.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... this took me a while. I was supposed to write this in July... but work. Well, I hope you like this anyways! Things are... Strange here. Weird little nugging feelings all around.

**__ **

**_Tuesday  
5th August, 2014_ **

Getting into routine was in the end quite easy. Certain jobs and tasks repeated from week to week and the instructing Olivia received from her colleagues was more than adequate. As the youngest member of the Library, Olivia was also tasked with some busybody work and shuffling between the departments. She didn’t really mind. It was a good opportunity to get to know the place and people working in it.

The other person going back and forth between the departments was none other than Martin Blackwood. Olivia wasn’t entirely sure which department he was attached to though… as she did see him occasionally doing filing in the Library as well yet not any way near constantly.

In general, Olivia liked visiting other departments. Lugging stacks of paper and books around was not light or easy but if it got her to change scenery a bit, so be it.

The Artefact Storage was interesting but scary place. Olivia was very glad that she never needed to walk deep inside the room as there was a desk waiting for all the incoming and outcoming mail. Thus she’d never really met anyone working there either.

The Research Department had most traffic as they researched statements and strange phenomena going around. Basically, they were already doing what TMA archival staff would do… Hmm… Maybe it was Jon’s experience with this department that made him make Archives into Research Dep. 2.0… Because while Gertrude certainly did footwork, she was mostly elusive and evasive (yet demanding) person thus all the rest of the statements fell on Research… As it should actually. During the past months Olivia had given a lot of thought to how things were run currently and how they’d be running under Jon.

Archives by name meant storage for information. Cambridge dictionary defined the word as ‘a collection of historical records relating to a place, organization, or family’ and ‘a place where historical records are kept’.

Thus, Olivia could conclude that research and follow-up should be continued to be done by Research Department. Statement forms should still be found at front desk with Rosie and the Head Archivist should have no need to meet with statement givers.

Elias had really made Jon stir the pot.

The Archives itself Olivia had visited only a couple of times. Simply said, they were a mess. Her fingers had itched to start neatening the shelves, to arrange the papers at least by year even if not by subject matter quite yet. Gertrude had never been in while Olivia had visited and it was better that way. The woman no doubt knew about her familial connection to Elias and she really didn’t want to know what conclusions Gertrude would come to in regards to her involvement with _Jonah_.

This errand-running had offered Olivia the chance to meet Gerard Keay though. The goth had been flipping through some books she had delivered to the Archives on the previous week when Olivia arrived to the Archives to pick up the ones indicated to have been obsolete in regards information searched.

“A good book?” Olivia asked. Gerard looked up, nodded and went back to browsing through the pages. “Is that one coming back to Library or are you keeping it here still?” She confirmed.

“I think I’ll read it more.” The young man replied.

“Alright.” She began piling up the books. Apparently, most of them would go back… and hey, there was a stack of statements to be delivered to Research. She regarded Gerard from the corner of her eye. ‘Badly-done dye job’ was an accurate description of the state of Gerard’s hair. The black was wrong shade to match his skin and thus made him look sickly – though that could’ve been the brain tumor as well – and his roots were showing unevenly.

“Who’re you again?” Gerard asked her.

“Oh, I’m Olivia Bennet. From the Library. Call me Livvie though.” Olivia smiled and lifted her new load.

“…Gerry.”

“Nice to meet you, Gerry. Do you work with Mrs. Robinson?”

“In a sense.”

“Say… what sort of person is she? You see, I was hired in June but I’ve never met her so all I know is what I’ve heard from others. The Research complains about her. The Library is silent but dissatisfied with her. The Storage… well, who knows what the Storage thinks. And Eli doesn’t say as much as he implies…”

It was true. Elias had spoken of Gertrude only once to Olivia and that conversation had between the lines boiled down to “Don’t tell Mrs. Robinson anything. Actually, don’t even look at her.” Paranoia much? What did he think Olivia could tell the Archivist that Gertrude wouldn’t already know? After all, Olivia hadn’t seen Elias for the past twenty years unlike Gertrude. _Paranoia much_ , Jonah?

“Eli?” Gerard frowned.

“Oh, you don’t know? Elias Bouchard is my cousin from my mother’s side.

“Really? Must be difficult.”

“Oh, you got no idea!” Olivia laughed and made to exit the room. “Nice talking to you, Gerry. I hope we have a chance to meet up again.”

“Sure…”

* * *

**_Monday  
11th August, 2014_ **

Making friends with colleagues was easy and hard. It mostly depended whom you were meeting with, where and when.

There had been some collective Friday drinks a couple of times which had given Olivia some insight into her new colleagues. Like, Hannah was part of identical triplets and begun dying her hair in middle school to lurid colors in order to be distinguished from her sisters. Or that Tom’s favourite food was anything with chili and favourite drink some obscure vegetable smoothie. Some researchers had had their own spooky encounters that lured them to the Institute. Tim never said a word about his own motives to come to the Institute and Olivia was not surprised. Neither did she try directly asking him considering the recentness of his experiences.

(When looking at Tim’s face though, there was something nagging at her and telling her that things were not like so. Her fingers itched to grab her phone and call someone. Who? Jenny?)

Jon did not come to pub nights. Instead Olivia occasionally managed to lure him to grab lunch outside. Jon was apparently well-acquainted with different cafes and lunch buffets around. Jon was very… skeptical about everything outwardly and thus their topics of conversation rarely touched anything work related. But all the obscure topics he knew? Olivia really liked listening to him lecture even though that left her to keep an eye on the clock so they’d be back in time. But it was nice. Jon might be embarrassed over not letting her talk much but Olivia was always quick to dissuade his worries.

After meeting Gerard… There was no pattern according to which he was around the Institute but one day Olivia managed to find him on the roof, smoking. Olivia herself had come up there to clear her thoughts.

“What’s up?” The goth asked when Olivia settled against the wall running the along the edge of the roof. He was leaning his elbows against the wall, facing the scenery and Thames, while she turned her back to it, leaning back and tilting her head to look up at the sky.

“I… my phone is being weird. I tried to ignore it last month but…”

“Weird how? Phones malfunction all the time and then there are updates fucking them up even more.”

“You know how there are rules for listening to music in the Institute?” For such an old-fashioned establishment with numerous rules about everything from attendance to dress code, it was surprising that listening to music was allowed. The stipulations were though to either do so in soundproofed study room or then by using earbuds and having low enough volume that you’d be easily approachable and contactable.

“Haven’t had much need for reading the rules as I’m not employed here.”

Point.

“Well, I was listening to music while filing in the back rooms when suddenly my phone changed tracks. It became a speaking…thing instead. And I know I used to have podcasts on my phone but I’ve deleted them all after moving them on my computer so I don’t know what was it about…” Olivia fidgeted her necklace again. It was like a nervous tick to her. Gerard considered her for a moment before taking another drag.

“When did this happen?”

“14th of July… and second time on the 18th.” Those both were significant dates. Which Olivia only remembered now because of what she’d heard on those times. The first was the time Manuela Dominguez had given the statement. The second was then Daisy and Basira investigated a suicide scene with a surviving victim… But the thing was… they weren’t in statement form. It was like Olivia had been there, first listening Manuela speaking directly to Gertrude, then at the site with the two officers as they took down the gun-toting man and got him to paramedics. Things that weren’t in original episodes as they were either simply written form that was read later or then recounted afterwards.

“And it hasn’t happened since?”

“No. And when I looked at my phone to see a file name or anything, there was none. Once the speaking part was over, music continued where it had cut off like nothing had happened. Next day I checked the songs again but they were normal again. No weird interruptions, no unnecessary audio files, nothing.”

“What can you tell me of either case?”

“First was… Statement of Manuela Dominguez regarding the up-coming ritual of the Dark… It was like she was talking directly to Mrs. Robinson. And when the recording ended, I went to the second-floor corridor to see a woman coming from the direction of the Archives.” Olivia swallowed. She wasn’t sure how much she could tell Gerard. Especially in a manner that would not betray her knowledge in general just yet.

“And the second?”

“Two police officers. Women. On site looking around apartment of a dead man. Dead man who tried to shoot himself in the head again in their presence.”

Gerard extinguished his cigarette and straightened up. He gave a little wince and held his head for a moment. Olivia fought not to react too much. It was his tumor, she knew it. But she shouldn’t know it.

“Are you alright?” She asked carefully.

“Just fine. Low blood sugar.”

Bullshit. Gerard didn’t get up from lying down or sitting down. Her barely lifted his head for twenty centimeters.

“If you say so.”

Before Gerard could advise her or ask anything though, Olivia’s phone rang. She looked at it. Front desk. What did Rosie want from her?

“Hello? Olivia speaking.” She took a step from the wall and prepared to go back inside.

_“You’ve received a delivery here. The couriers are waiting for your signature at the front desk.”_

“I’ll be there right away. Thank you for telling me.” The call ended and Olivia turned to say goodbye to Gerard and thank him for listening when she was stopped by his scowl directed at something down at the front of the Institute.

“Gerry?”

“Be careful with whatever there is waiting for you.”

“What…?”

But Gerard didn’t look at her again, continuing to glare at whatever there was out of her line of sight. With a shrug, Olivia went back inside.

* * *

_“Ah…”_ Olivia gave a deep mental sigh when she arrived to the front desk. Of course. Delivery, Gerry’s warning based on what he saw and what he heard from her phone’s leaky earpiece.

Of course, it was Breekon and Hope in question.

“You Olivia Benn’t?” One of them asked when she arrived to the scene. There was a… basket on the arms of one of them while the other was holding a clipboard.

“Yes, that’s me.”

“Signature please.” The clipboard was thrust to her.

Olivia signed the clipboard. She made sure to make it messy and tight with only hints of initials. She really didn’t want to risk the Stranger getting hands on her actual signature.

“Here.” The basket was given to her.

“G’dday.”

“G’dbye.”

And they marched off. Olivia blinked after them and then looked at the basket. The items within were covered by a green fabric. The basket itself was woven from willow and the handle was decorated by flowers and ribbons. There was a card attached. Olivia took it gingerly and tugged the ribbon attaching it to the handle free.

It was a birthday card signed by her friends. Benjamin, Patricia, Marcus, Dennis and Jennifer. It was… a surprise to say the least.

Olivia looked at the basket again before making her way back upstairs and towards Research Department. She needed another set of eyes and opinions to this.

()

“Your birthday is today?” Tim gaped. “And you didn’t tell us?!”

“Well, we’re barely acquaintanted so…” Olivia gestured vaguely. “But yeah, the delivery guys were weird so I wanted to come up and ask if your department knew anything about them.”

“Breekon and Hope, right?” Sasha asked. “I think they’ve appeared in a couple of statements. Suspicious and possibly dangerous but usually on the background.”

“And that makes it even weirder to have them to deliver a gift basket from my friends.” Olivia pointed out.

“Well, open it up and let’s see what you’ve got there.” Tim urged and pushed Olivia towards one of the desks – Jon’s.

Jon was not very impressed of the disturbance and Olivia was quite bemused at the attention and behaviour of her colleagues from floor below.

“Alright then…” She deposited the basket on the desk and picked up the card first for inspection. A storebought card of flowering vase with ‘Happy Birthday!’ written on looping golden letters on the bottom. Inside was greeting written mainly by Jennifer, judging by the violet pen used on her signature as well. All the others had signed it as well, different color each: Dennis had used orange, Benjamin blue, Patricia red and Marcus yellow. Nothing unusual in it. Which given the circumstances was unusual in itself.

Then was the green fabric covering the contents of the basket. Olivia removed it. Raw silk, emerald green. Slight changes of color depending on how the light hit it. Strangely enough it didn’t have any pattern.

“That’s good quality.” Jon pointed out.

“Yes, it doesn’t seem to have any synthetic fibers in it.” Olivia rubbed her fingers against the rough feel of the… scarf. It definitely was scarf sized. “I think this is from Patricia… She recently travelled around Asia and bought a lot of stuff from there.”

Lot of stuff for cheap considering how advantageous conversion rate was for… basically any European currency. When handling the fabric, Olivia could remember visiting Patricia’s apartment in… March? April? and seeing all the fabrics and jewelry and other trinkets strewn around the flat. They’d gotten their pick from them but apparently some had been set aside as actual gifts…

Olivia folded the scarf and set it aside. Next were… a bottle of Rosé and a box of cake. Marcus then.

“Ooh, nice!” Tim grinned, rubbing his hands together. “I’ll go ask Martin if he knows where the plates are.”

“Go ahead.” Sasha laughed. Olivia lifted the bottle from the basket. It was still chilled. There was condension on the glass and all. Label… Gérard Bertrand. Her favourite brand.

“It must’ve travelled only a short while if the drink is still cold.” Jon frowned.

“Well, the confectionery where Marcus works at is not too far…” Olivia mused. “Jenny probably put together the basket and then had the delivery picked up from there.”

“Who’s this Jenny then?” Sasha asked.

“Jennifer Houston. She’s a friend… Quite bit older than I but… a friend nonetheless.” There was a faint impression of Jenny having been Olivia’s babysitter once? She dismissed it.

Tim returned with Martin, and plates.

“Wine? Nice.” Tim grinned. “I think we can get some glasses from the cafeteria.”

“Should we test the cake for… something, first?” Martin asked, apprehensive, but the impression ruined by the cake server he had in hand.

“With what?” Jon huffed.

“Tox-kit? Geiger counter? EMP-device?” Olivia threw in. “I don’t know. You are the researchers here.”

“Do we really believe there is something in there though?” Sasha frowned. “If the confectionery is so close and your friend is the one to bake the cake?”

“We cannot discount the involvement of Breekon and Hope though.” Jon interjected.

“No… But we can feed a piece to Eli and see how he reacts.” Olivia said just when someone knocked on the door. Speak of the devil. Well, he could serve his purpose. If Elias would eat the cake, then she’d know there’d be no problems with it. Because Elias would Know if there were.

“Knock, knock, I heard you had cake in here.”

“Yes! Did you come here to steal a piece?” Olivia grinned. Lifting the cake box carefully from the basket and then putting the folded-up scarf inside to cover the rest of her presents. Cake first, presents later.

“Oh, it’s hardly stealing… We’re family after all.” That was literally the first time Elias publicly admitted within the Institute that they were related.

“Uh-huh…” Olivia nodded absent-mindedly as they plates were being passed around. She shot a quick message to Library group chat to invite them over as well and then accepted the cake server from Martin. She should probably get one piece for Gerry as well.

Tim had gotten small wine glasses and was pouring the rosé to them, just enough for two mouthfuls. The Library staff arrived with Rosie and some Artifact Storage people and more plates were dealt around. Olivia opened the cake box. It was Sacher cake! A huge Sacher cake that could easily suffice for all of them and maybe even have leftovers for Olivia to take home.

And as she cut the cake, everyone was singing her birthday song. So bizarre! So ridiculously funny! Olivia couldn’t help grinning.

* * *

After eating the cake, everyone dispersed back to their tasks, including Elias. Olivia placed another piece on a new plate and set it aside for her to take to Gerry.

“You never took a look at the rest of your presents.” Tim pointed out them. “Too embarrassed?”

“Not really. They just are total surprise to me as well as I’ve not made any gift requests this year.”

“Ooh, so there might be something raunchy then? Something scandalous? I hear you’ve been meeting with someone dark, broody and handsome…” Eyebrow wiggle. Olivia let out a longsuffering sigh.

“Tim, ever heard about the narrative flow?”

Two things happened. One, Jon choked on his own saliva on the background. Two, Martin gasped in delight. Sasha and Tim, naturally, just blinked at the non-sequitur.

“Uh, what…?”

“You were at Revenge on Spaceport Mahon?” Martin near-squealed.

“Yes! My friend Benjy’s colleague knows the person who made majority of the costumes.” Olivia smiled. “I’ve got all the albums and gone to quite few concerts.”

“Me too!” Martin gushed. “What is your favourite album?”

Olivia was oh-so-tempted to say Bifrost Incident… except it wasn’t out yet. Was it even a concept at this point of time? When was it released again?

“I think I like Ulysses Dies at Dawn most. Elysian Fields is so beautiful song.”

“I like Once Upon A Time (In Space). The overall plot and the characters are so wonderful.” Martin blushed. Olivia smiled widely and whipped her phone out.

“I’m… going to change your ringtone… to… Cinders’ Song.”

“Olivia!” Came the mortified protest and hasty grab at her phone. Olivia laughed and leant out of the way.

“So… care to share with the rest of the class?” Tim asked with an arched eyebrow.

“Nope!” Olivia grinned before Jon could protest and potentially reveal himself. He was very strict about his professional image after all.

“Right…” Sasha drawled. “Why don’t you see to the rest of your gifts then?”

“Oh, sure.” Olivia slipped her phone back to the pocket and lifted the scarf from the basket. There were three other packets left. The first one was wrapped in fabric and sewn shut. Very ecologic. Very Benjy. From within, Olivia found pale blue arm band with The Mechanisms’ logo embroidered to it. On the inside was embroidery too. It only had a date and time in it, but Olivia knew what it was. The next Mechs concert date!

The other box was simply white and rectangular in shape. It was held shut by indigo ribbon. From Jenny then. Olivia opened the box to reveal… six dolls. Each about five inches high. And each of them modelled after each of Olivia’s friends.

“Dolls?” Jon stared at them. Others present also were baffled. Tim’s eyes had narrowed, Sasha’s head tilted to the left and Martin was frowning.

“Oh, they are so adorable!” Olivia clapped her hands together. “Jenny is a dollmaker and designer by profession. She gets a lot of commissions. I’m surprised she’s made this many.”

“Uh… Do you know who these dolls are supposed to be then?” Martin asked.

“Yes. This is Jenny herself.” Olivia pointed at the pale doll with indigo hair and outfit.

“That’s Tricia.” Dark-skinned doll with curly black hair, wearing denim shorts, leather jacket and red shirt.

“Marcus.” Hispanic doll in chef’s clothes with yellow accents

“Benjy.” Curly blond hair and old-fashioned clothes. Blue vest.

“Denny.” Asian doll in orange, flame-patterned leotard and grey sweatpants.

“And Tara…” Olivia smiled sadly at the doll bearing the visage of her deceased friend, wearing violet shirt and white long skirt.

“You’re all color-coded.” Sasha remarked, picking the green scarf from the table and placing it on Olivia’s shoulder.

“Yeah… I guess.”

Tim lifted carefully Denny-doll from the box and scrutinized it.

“His eyes are mismatched.” He remarked.

“So are Denny’s.” Olivia nodded. “Other eye is a fake.”

“Is that why this one’s…” He pointed at Jenny-doll. “Eyes are different too.”

“That’s Jenny’s aesthetic. She even wears contact lenses that make her eyes less shiny.” Or at least Olivia assumed that’s why Jenny had painted the eyes of her own doll differently.

The last present remained unopened when Olivia gathered her things and went to hunt down Gerry for his cake slice. She was planning on asking if he’d like to come with her to the concert. Have something fun experiences… before dying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can't tell me that Cinder's Song is not Martin's Song as well.
> 
> Olivia and Martin both reference to Mech concert called Revenge on Spaceport Mahon. In it Gunpowder Tim had to retune his guitar in the middle of concert and started going on about the moisture in the air... or his hands or something with very... interesting voice. To this Jonny de'Ville then asked him if he'd ever heard of narrative flow. "No!" Olivia sort of tested here if there were any Mech fans... and found a fellow in Martin. There is a video on Youtube on the concert that I recommend watching. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eYALygp32w The scene I reference is at about 16 minutes.
> 
> Next chapter! The Mechanisms concert! And Johan appears at the Institute!


	7. Scheele's Green

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Johan arrives. Before that, Olivia wakes up after Mechs Concert.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the chapter. The one I waited and waited until I could finally write. And as it's always with long anticipated chapters, I went through the scene many times in my head prior writing... and when I sat down to write, it was harder than I expected.
> 
> Originally this chapter was meant to be entirely from Elias's PoV... but then I got the concert related stuff here instead of the previous chapter. But! Instead you get both Olivia and Elias here!
> 
> Hope you like this chapter and the art I've included.

**__ **

**_Sunday  
21st September, 2014_ **

It’s Sunday and Olivia woke up with bounding headache. Hangover. Her head hurt, her back hurt, her stomach hurt and her mouth felt like something sharp tasting had dried in and seeped into the cracks of the floorboards in the porch in the sun.

Gingerly, she sat up, finding herself in the middle of floor of her living room… surrounded by pens and papers and two… sleeping men. Martin and Gerard. What was even this life?

Right, Mechs’ concert yesterday. Getting smashed with the boys during and afterwards. Stumbling to her apartment because it was closest. And then…

Olivia picked the closest paper and peered at the wobbly handwriting in it. Something about… Handbook of Surviving Archives? Another had rant about dangers of Leitners, yet another was… Dissertation of Aspects of Entities…

“Right, better clean these up before Martin wakes up… sober.” She began gathering the papers together and carefully sliding them from underneath the sleeping bodies of her friends. Sha absently scanned through the content and while wobbly in quality, the handwriting wasn’t too atrocious and the phrasing was somewhat coherent. Olivia quirked a smile. This could make a fun promotion present for Jon perhaps. She’d need to go through it carefully later.

Olivia stepped around the boys and went to stash the papers into her room. Then she picked some comfy clothes to dress into after shower – all the while thanking her drunken foresight to at least take her corset off before she’d managed to fall asleep – and headed for bathroom. After stopping in kitchen to drink water and rinse that awful taste out of her mouth.

* * *

When Olivia got back from shower, Gerard was already waking and holding his head in his hands. Ouch, she hoped his condition wasn’t much worse from usual…

“Morning, Gerry.” Olivia greeted him and put water to boil for tea. “There are extra towels in the bathroom if you want to shower.”

“Th’nks.” The goth muttered and slowly got on his feet. He looked down on Martin who was snuggling one of the throw pillows from the couch and muttering into it, and then shook his head. He only stopped by bathroom, presumably to wash his face… from sleepy grime and make-up both and then came to kitchen as well to dispose the make-up wipes. His face looked strange without all the mascara and eyeliner and eyebrow pencil. Very… washed out. Pun not intended.

The water boiled and Olivia made tea. Martin woke up and took her up on the shower before appearing in the kitchen as well. They drank tea together in silence and Olivia then asked what they wanted for breakfast. Gerry apparently was fine with anything. Martin tried to offer help but Olivia buffed him.

“My house, my hosting, I’m cooking.” She grinned and got up to put bread slices in the toaster. Not actual toast but other white bread she sliced herself. Then she cracked eggs in the pan. She didn’t have bacon stocked and it probably would’ve been too greasy anyways to eat right in the morning. Better for lunch. Cheese from the fridge to be sliced… some leafy salad and maybe paprika as well.

First toasts popped out and Olivia put next ones in. She served the boys the first slices and let them build their breakfast from the ingredients she'd put out.

“You are way too cheery for being hangover.” Gerard complained.

“I showered. That does wonders for waking up. As does changing into clean clothes.” Olivia smiled, sitting down with her own breakfast as well. “How did you like the concert? If you remember anything of it anymore.”

“It was great. Not really my usual tastes but… I liked it.” Gerard smiled. “Thank you for taking me. A nice change from… running errands for Gertrude.”

“And a break from your book burning quest.” Olivia grinned.

“Book burning?” Martin asked tentatively.

“… Leitners are evil and better burned and out of hands of incompetent and ignorant people.” Gerard replied, obviously biting his tongue so he wouldn’t go on a rant about Jurgen Leitner’s idiocy first thing in the morning.

The trio continued their conversation then to the newest album of the Mechanisms – High Noon Over Camelot – which had also been sold at the venue. Olivia had her own album already from the concert in March – and she’d just randomly remembered that in the middle of getting ready – and had taken it with her to get autographs on the cover. Chance that hadn’t been offered in the previous concert. Martin had gotten his copy yesterday and was now absolutely giddy for getting Jonny d’Ville’s autograph on it. Olivia had watched very carefully the moment of signing but while Jon had very obviously recognized Martin and Olivia, Martin had not recognized Jon and Olivia had been sure to just smile and thank before moving on the line. Hopefully there would not be any awkwardness at work.

“Your friends were also all very nice!” Martin smiled. “I was glad to meet them.”

“And I’m glad to hear you liked them.”

“Do… Dennis and Jennifer date? They seemed very attached to each other.” Martin asked them. Olivia stopped the motion of reaching for her tea mug. Hm… Actually…

“Good question.” She frowned. “I think it’s more like Jenny watching after Denny. Sort of sibling relationship but not? Jenny is a lot older than she looks and Denny is among youngest of us so dating would be awkward. You are correct though that they are basically attached from the hip.”

“Oh…”

* * *

Eventually they migrated back to the living room and as was customary when visiting new places, various pictures and knickknacks Olivia had put on display were scrutinized. There weren’t anything incriminating or supremely weird… At least Olivia didn’t think so.

“Huh… Olivia, who’s this?” Martin asked, squinting at a photograph on the mantlepiece. Olivia looked up from organizing her pile of magazines and answering Gerard’s questions on her book collection.

“Hm?” Well, that ginger hair was easily spotted, even from distance. “That’s my father, Johan Smed. The picture is about… five years old I think…”

“He looks familiar… Can’t say from where though…” Martin frowned in thought.

“Must be one of those faces.” Olivia shrugged. “In the next frame to the left is Eli and I from the time before his promotion.”

“Oh!” That was certain of more interest. Even Gerard migrated over. He also gave a look at Johan’s picture before focusing on… pre-Jonahfied Elias.

“He looks so different.” Martin marvelled.

“Gertrude said he used to be a pothead.” Gerard remarked.

“Yeah, well… That is quite true, I guess. Eli was a bit unmotivated and he kept being shunted to menial work so he started slacking off… I remember the smell of weed on him after some bad weeks…” Olivia walked up to them. “He didn’t have much in the way of friends within the Institute. Not that I know of anyways… And then he was suddenly promoted and I didn’t see him again until aunt Emily’s funerals… and the next time was when I woke up in hospital last June.”

“That’s… you mentioned once that you hadn’t seen Elias in two decades… I didn’t realize you were being literal.” Martin frowned.

“It was quite literal. I… I tease and poke Eli when I can get away with it. I suppose I’m trying to make up for the lost time.” She shrugged.

It wasn’t too long after that Martin headed home. Something about calling hours of the care home his mother was in. Gerard lingered a bit.

“Could I have a way to contact that friend of yours… Jennifer?” He asked. Olivia’s left brow ticked up.

“Oh? May I ask why?”

Gerard looked at her silently, like weighting how much she actually knew and how much he could get away with hinting without telling.

“There was something she mentioned… that could be related to something I’m looking into. I’d like to double-check.”

“Okay… I think I have one of her calling cards somewhere…” She had one. In her address book on the phone table. Old table that had once held a landline but now functioned as a charging point for Olivia’s cellphone. It also held old phonebooks and maps and bus schedules and, on the shelf below them, she had read newspapers.

Olivia gave the calling card – simple white with name on indigo cursive and number stamped a shade darker ink – and Gerard pocketed it.

“My thanks.”

“You’re welcome. I suppose we’ll see when we’ll see at the Institute.”

“Quite true.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.”

* * *

**_Monday  
22nd September, 2014, onwards_ **

It was a smidge awkward at work for the next week. Not too noticeably. Olivia didn’t need to pop by Research too often and apparently Martin hadn’t noticed anything different with Jon. Jon was maybe a bit short and snappish with him but that was nothing new really. It took a bit but eventually Jon calmed down and relaxed when he determined that none of his coworkers knew about his ‘secret life as immortal space pirate’. Even when Olivia dragged him twice that week to lunch, she didn’t bring it up either. Of course, Jon did ask about her weekend out of politeness and Olivia replied in general terms. Excitement over going to the concert and seeing friends again, getting shit-faced and then waking up with a hangover.

“And I found out yesterday that I changed my ringtone… well, I put personalized ringtones to all of my contacts and those are most likely all Mechs’ songs.” Olivia shrugged on Thursday. And hadn’t that been fun when suddenly Old King Cole started ringing in the middle of library when Elias was calling her about this or that…

“Oh? Like… what?” Jon asked with feigned _mild_ interest.

“I wouldn’t know. Too drunk to remember most of the night… I do know that Martin has Cinder’s Song… I didn’t change it out since my birthday. And I think Gerry has The Ballad of Lil Lemon…” That track hadn't yet been pulled out from streaming services... And Olivia had picked it only because of the fun tune and the verse "she wore a coat as black as night".

It was nice. The rest month went by in mundane normality. And so did the beginning of October.

And then more weirdness came knocking to the Institute.

* * *

**_Thursday  
22nd October, 2014_ **

It was… two weeks since Olivia’s phone glitched once more and let her listen in on what Gertrude recorded first of the statement of Wallis Turner and then her musings on how she might need to use Gerard to stop Unknowing. And it was about a month since the concert and last seeing Gerard. Technically neither fact was relevant to what happened but…

Olivia was going through some filing requests with Elias at latter’s office. Behind her was the newly arrived portrait of the illustrious founder of the Institute, Jonah Magnus, finally returned from having the frame fixed. According to Elias, it was the last and largest of the three portraits of Magnus within the Institute. The first one being the one in the niche where Olivia had been hanging and the middle one on the Archive corridor. That one had been commissioned a bit after the Institute had moved to London from Edinburgh.

These facts were relevant to what happened next.

Elias’ gaze lifted from the desk just a smidge but enough to attract Olivia’s attention a bit before there was a knock on the door.

“Yes?” Elias called. The door opened. Martin was there, visibly nervous and bewildered about something.

“Ah, sorry to disturb… Rosie said Olivia would be here…” He began.

“Yeah…?” Olivia turned half-way around. “What is it now? Did some bookshelf fall over or something?”

“Not so much but…” Martin trailed off, his eyes tracking on the side. “It’s a bit weird but…”

“Martin, we don’t have the whole day to dither.” Elias sighed. Olivia carefully did not react to the apparent fact that Elias was probably not reading Martin’s mind currently.

“Olivia, your father is downstairs… by the Archive corridor…”

“My father? I didn’t even know he was in the country!” Olivia exclaimed. Johan’s habit of making surprise visits wasn’t anything new but… well, he hadn’t appeared at Olivia’s places of work before. It was always either at university or at her apartment. “Are you sure it’s him?”

“I recognize him from the photo at your house. Very familiar face by now.” Martin smiled nervously, eyes still firmly on the left… his left that was. Usually that would be a sign of lying but Olivia doubted it. Instead Olivia turned fully and tried to follow what Martin was looking at. Nothing really because it wasn’t in his field of view. Instead, Olivia’s attention was caught by the Magnus portrait. She snapped her eyes back to Martin who was now looking directly at her.

_“He looks familiar… Can’t say from where though…”_

“You’re kidding me, right?” Olivia sighed and determinedly ignored Elias behind her, staring at the back of her neck.

“I’m afraid not…”

“Olivia, Martin, what is this about?” Elias demanded.

“Very messed up way to make a family reunion happen. Excuse me, I need to go have some words with my father.”

* * *

Martin was right. Johan was standing at the corridor leading to the Archives. Specifically, he was standing right before the portrait there and talking with Gertrude.

“… resemblance indeed uncanny. I’d seen some pictures before but standing here just makes the similarities… downright jarring.” He was saying, curly ginger hair tied on green ribbon and hanging over his shoulder.

“I’m then surprised you haven’t come here to stare at… your doppelgänger’s face sooner.” Gertrude shot a scathing look at the portrait.

“Ah, I’ve been too busy gallivanting around the globe, chasing after pieces of history. Everything that has ever been, doesn’t it just beg to be unearthed for people to see and learn from? Even if it’s only to learn from mistakes of old?” Johan laughed and turned on his heels. “What do you think Olivia? Curiousity is such a common vice of us.”

“Quite.” Olivia huffed. What a strange way to finally meet her father since her… awakening… “A prior warning would’ve been nice.”

“Ah, dear Mrs. Robinson invited me over due some… occurrences at the previous dig site. I decided to make it a proper visit at the same time.” It was… creepy how Johan basically mirrored Magnus’s posture… One hand behind back, same ginger hair, same green eyes, same shape of nose… Most notable difference was the fact that Magnus had a moustache, glasses and a cane in the picture. And that he was pasty Victorian while Johan had been the past several months under Egyptian sun.

Honestly, it was disconcerting enough that if Olivia didn’t know for sure that Elias was behind her, having followed her down, she would’ve probably suspected Jonah inhabiting her father…

Thank heavens it wasn’t so.

“Professor Smed and I were just about to continue to the Archives.” Gertrude began.

“Oh, I’m in no hurry… unless you have things to get into?”

“Not at the moment.”

“Good, good… Olivia, come over here, it has been way too long. And is that Eli lurking behind you?” Johan smiled – with his whole face and broke the spell that had taken the three newcomers by surprise.

“Father…” Olivia approached Johan and sank into a hug. “It’s been… so _long_. I missed you.”

“I missed my little princess as well.” Johan replied, kissing Olivia’s forehead. “I see you’re making yourself home here.”

“I feel there is a double-meaning in your words.”

“Just a bit. I must say, it was quite the surprise to hear you were applying. Last person in our family before you to step into these halls was my grandfather.”

“Your side of family has history with the Institute?” Elias butted in. Olivia looked up and stepped back to see… almost hungry look in his eyes when he looked at Johan.

“Well, yes.” Johan continued smiling. “James Fenwick interned here for two years while researching for his thesis project in the late 10’s. His thesis was about the commonalities found in folktales all over the world. Common themes, common monsters, common lessons, common characteristics with the heroes. It’s frankly quite fascinating subject. Once finished with the project, he donated a copy of it here as well.”

“It must then be either in the Archives or the Library…” Olivia pondered. “Do we happen to have a copy at home too?”

“Yes, in my personal library in the office. I have a copy of your thesis project as well. One must keep a careful record of what achievements family comes up with.”

“You are flattering me.” Olivia slapped his arm.

“Duty of the father, I’m afraid.” Johan laughed and then addressed Elias again. “Say, Eli, since you are the Head here, you must know a lot about this painting. Can you tell me, is the color used on Magnus’s eyes truly Scheele’s Green?”

“It shouldn’t be. But then again there is not much records surviving of the painting itself.” Elias hedged.

“Scheele’s… You don’t mean Schloss Green? That’s poisonous!” Olivia gaped.

“Well, aside from looking like a pretentious smug-arse in this painting and Regency Twink in the painting in the entrance hall… Victorian era was full of ignorant ponces living in toxic houses…” Johan scoffed. “No matter how educated they might’ve been. You might want to consider checking though… and making sure none of the employees here die due breathing arsenic fumes. I worry especially you Mrs. Robinson as you need to walk past this painting daily.”

“Johan… Isn’t that a bit excessive? If I remember correctly, your degree was not in art history…” Elias said through gritted teeth.

“Eli… I’m seven years older than you and have a Doctorate in Archeology and a Master’s in History. That includes knowledge of pigments used in various eras even if they haven’t been my main focus. One can’t go wandering caves and tombs willy-nilly… And Scheele’s Green is infamous and recent enough color that it’s basically a civic duty for me to recognize it on sight.” Johan… schooled the previously mentioned Regency Twink inhabiting yet another twink body.

Olivia cheered internally. Partially for the rebuttal in general but mainly for reminding that Johan was older than Elias. Seven years may not be much but Jonah was probably vain enough not to try body-hopping in Johan no matter how tempting with the similar looks and name it might be. Trying to distract herself, she looked at the painting again. Previously she’d only went by it as fast as possible because occasionally some of the lamps of the corridor flickered and shut randomly and it was a smidge creepy, and so she had not really looked at it. But right away she could note something… extra.

“Huh, someone has touched up this painting afterwards.” She remarked.

“How so?” Martin had sidled next to her, on the other side from Johan and Elias. Gertrude remained lurking on the sidelines, partially on the way to her lair – ahem, the Archives.

Olivia pulled her owl bookmark from her pocket and lifted it up next to the lapel of the painted man’s jacket and the pocket up there which had… the same bookmark.

“This painting was commissioned after the Institute moved to London… which was in 1840’s… But you, father, said in your letter that this bookmark was stolen by a relative of ours many years ago. And the engraving says ‘F. Johnson 1831’ which I can only assume to have been engraved by this mystery relative after being stolen. So…”

“Yup, it was James who made the little addition. Wrote into his diary how he snuck in on the second last week of his internship – a Friday – to make that little addition so the smell of paint would disappear during the weekend. No one noticed anything.” Johan grinned. “Granpa was a bit of a vandal in his youth.”

Now Elias was staring at the painting as well, scandalous surprise written all over his face. Mr. Body-hopper hadn’t noticed during all these… hundred or so years then? Someone was complacent…

“But how why… why did this mysterious F.Johnson steal this bookmark… among several books? And why did great-granpa paint the bookmark on Magnus’s painting?” Olivia frowned.

“Isn’t it obvious? It was Mr. Magnus the bookmark was stolen from.” Johan replied. “And as for the first question… There is only guesswork on that part. And a couple of educated estimations for exact reasons… But spite was one of them.”

Olivia looked at her father and then back at the painting. An idea was forming in her mind and that made dread pool in her stomach.

“Spite… from a bastard child, right?” She breathed. Johan didn’t refute the guess. More damning though was Elias’s disbelieving but thoughtful silence. This was insane. A step or dozen off the beaten path. To think that she and Johan were quite possibly _descended_ –…

Breathe, Olivia, _breathe_ …

She took a deep breath and ran a hand across her face. Her other hand clutched the bookmark while she fought the urge to drive the pointy end to Elias’s eyes.

“And this was something you couldn’t just tell me? Like before I applied? Or after I got the job?” She questioned her father. Johan stared solemnly at her.

“Family history has never been your interest before. We have extensive records yes but for you to get to know what is written down there, you’d need to first ask for it. It’s… always been like that with our family. The child must first have desire to know and learn and be receptive for new information before they can be given lessons. I was in upper secondary school when I wanted to know about our family and went to ask my mother and granpa. And my mother was in her early teens when she began learning. And this applies to any information. There must first be questions so answers can be offered and new questions be formed.” He explained seriously. And Olivia had to admit, he was right. Some stories are told voluntarily, silly childhood adventures, experiences in college, first meeting with future spouse and ensuing dating, work experiences… But anything more in-depth… anything possibly relating to Entities… that should be given only when asked. Only if the asker was receptive to process the information.

“I see.”

“So you claim blood relation to our esteemed founder Jonah Magnus?” Elias asked.

“The portrait could be as good indication as any but…” Johan shrugged. “There was first Alice. She used the name Fridolf Johnson when gallivanting around England as a lone woman travelling was quite frowned upon. She eventually married Arthur Johnson and had a daughter, Ethel. Ethel married a Mr. Fenwick and had James. Then there was Isaac and Isabella. Isabella was my mother. That’s the direct line. Of course, Ethel had three other children as well, all daughters but they were never… Ethel always disapproved Alice’s lifestyle. Didn’t help that Alice and Arthur disappeared when she was in her teens. So James actually was an outlier who wanted to keep family records in check.”

* * *

* * *

Professor Smed had gone to the Archives with Gertrude. Olivia was in the front hall, sitting down on the stairs that led to the second floor. She was staring up at the portrait in the niche. Elias stood on the other side of the stairs, leaning against the bannister and watching her. Her long skirt pooled around her, catching dust. Martin had been sent back to work with a promise he would not talk about what he’d learnt. Olivia had requested that and Elias would keep an eye on the _boy_ to make sure he wouldn’t.

“That must’ve been a shock.” Elias said, prodding her with words. It frustrated him not to know what she was thinking. Olivia blinked slowly, before lowering her gaze and sighing.

“Not much as it has been for you. I’m pretty used to informational bombs father drops into my lap… Though this was quite bigger in magnitude than usual. Anyhow, you are the Head of the Institute… if there is anyone to know anything there is to know about our Founder, it’s you, Eli. You probably have some Regency-Victorian diaries or letters or something… But here comes esteemed Johan Smed, shaking some literal skeletons out of closet…”

It was disconcerting indeed. While Elias felt no shame in his… dalliances in his adolescence, it was… uncomfortable to know there had been offspring as a result. Especially when he hadn’t had a chance to keep an eye on the lineage.

How fortunate to have the latest scion of his own flesh and blood to fall straight to his arms though. Was this another gift from the Web? First Jonathan Sims and now Olivia Bennet. Elias should probably prepare something nice for the Mother as a thank you.

But first…

“Are you going to find out more about your family? Your heritage?” What Professor Smed had told Olivia about asking questions first before answers could be given… It rang true… to some point. But it needed some refinement. After all, the one that provides the information, could also control how much would be shared. Curate the content so to speak. And that was exactly what Elias planned on doing with the next Archivist. He’d let the previous ones far too much freedom, and Gertrude certainly was the worst mistake to date.

“Yes. It does well to know where we come from… no matter how unconventional the truth might be…” Olivia nodded and tiny smile tugging her lips. “I’m quite curious about this. And since father is going to be home for undetermined time… I can drill him for answers.”

“Ah, good old way of bonding… pestering your elders.” Elias had a distinct impression of Olivia doing that to the original owner of this body. He banished the impression.

“Indeed.” A full smile bloomed on Olivia’s face. “After all, elders have the experience cumulated during their many years of living and thus the duty to educate their younger family members.”

“Are you calling me old?”

“Well, you are almost the same age than my father… So… yes.”

This girl…

“Olivia, did you wait for me long?” Johan popped out from behind the stair case. Elias _did not_ twitch in surprise. “Oh, hi Eli. You were here as well.”

“Johan.” Elias nodded shortly, hiding his irritation. If Olivia had her mind blocked by the hamsa she continued wearing regardless of how it fit her outfits – it fit well everytime for some reason – then Johan was impossibility to see at all and Elias. Did. Not. Like. That. And he couldn’t even See any discernible reason for that! Yes, Johan Smed was very much Hunt and Eye aligned with neither really gaining ground enough to fully claim him but that should just make him all the more interesting target for the Eye to read into and for Elias to tap and find all the secrets the (physically) older man hid. Elias couldn’t even look at Johan with any of the artificial eyes engraved or painted in the Institute. It was like the man did not exist for him to Watch.

“Do you mind if I steal Olivia for the rest of the day? We have a lot of catching up to do.” The Professor asked. Olivia got on her feet and picked up her bag and jacket from the bannister. Ah, Elias had assumed she’d been waiting for the man so they’d get lunch together…

“Very well.” Elias sighed, making it clear that he was giving this concession with reluctance. “I hope she will be back to work on time tomorrow though.”

“Of course. I might whisk her on a trip later this year. Have her out of this dreary English weather for a week or so.”

“There is only two full months left of this year. I hope to get a bit more fore-warning than that.” Elias scowled.

“Hmm… Olivia, what do you say?” Johan looked at his daughter. She frowned and thought a moment.

“Towards the end of November, I think… Could we go to America? There’d be plenty to see.” Curiously unspecific.

“That sounds like a plan. I’ll be holding a few lectures and seminars at the University in the meanwhile. I’m sure your friends would like to know.”

“You are in the same chat with them. You can tell yourself.” Olivia replied.

“True. And you can tell any close colleagues here in the case they are curious.”

“If I must.”

When they talked with each other, Elias felt he was drawn to listen and disinclined to interrupt. It had been hard in the basement level to join the conversation as well but now… Olivia had been correct in her assessment of her father earlier.

_“He is very good at talking. I guess it’s all in the intonation and cadence that invites people to listen and remain with him until he is done.”_

And the two of them were like self-nourishing loop of conversation that lured outsiders to stop and listen… even when it was complete mundanity they talked about. Elias did not appreciate being forgotten like this while still present – that was Peter’s role and domain – but there was something nostalgic from a wrong perspective.

Because… he also collected people around himself back in the days. Robert, Mordechai, Barnabas, Jonathan, Albrecht, Sampson… Gathered tightly around him, listening, sometimes contributing… and everyone else remaining in the periphery, watching and never interrupting and completely inconsequential.

* * *

When The Professor and Olivia departed from the Institute, Elias watched from whichever source he could. Mostly it looked like Olivia was walking alone and talking to empty air. And Elias came to a realization.

Watching Johan was like watching a warped reflection of himself. Something that would never be. Elias would never be field researcher, would never publicly speak to a crowd, would never waste time making a family. On one hand it was like looking at wasted opportunities. On the other hand, Elias was very satisfied not making such choices. And Watching (or not Watching) at his surprise descendants would be a sufficient mystery for him. He wasn’t even interested who was the woman he’d knocked up. Probably one of the nameless, faceless girls fawning after his money. Didn’t matter. She never tried to approach him again with the child… Alice. What were the books Alice stole then? Elias could not remember anything going missing in 1831…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A couple of things... By this time The Ballad o' Lil Lemon has indeed been pulled out from streaming services since some racist verses. The Mechs' site says:  
> "This track has been removed after a fan flagged up concerns over one of the verses. This track was based on a roleplaying game that we were playing at the time. Unfortunately, there were a few sections of that world that don’t stand up to scrutiny. While we didn’t add anything new, we unquestioningly copied sections that were, in retrospect, pretty racist. Given the above, we hope you’ll understand that we’ve decided to remove the track from all of our streaming services."
> 
> Personally, I've only ever heard the song part of youtube videos of Mech's concerts and never looked up the lyrics before double checking the name of the song and finding out the post above. I don't know when the flagging and removing has happened.
> 
> My art pieces can again be found at deviantArt and my art tumblr.  
> \- dA links:  
> https://www.deviantart.com/tsukiko75014/art/TMA-OC-Olivia-Bennet-850938573  
> https://www.deviantart.com/tsukiko75014/art/TMA-Uncanny-862142063  
> \- tumblr links:  
> https://tsukiko-no-art.tumblr.com/post/625623241031139328/  
> https://tsukiko-no-art.tumblr.com/post/635689870066630656/
> 
> I hope you liked this chapter! All the revelations and the mysteries still remaining. Elias is very wrong on some his estimates...  
> Next chapter! Olivia in her father's study. Granma appears! And Trip to America! Hu huu... I wonder why... >:3c


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